Judiciary of Puerto Rico in the context of "Government of Puerto Rico"

La Fortaleza (English: "the fortress"), officially the Palacio de Santa Catalina ("Saint Catherine's Palace"), is the official residence and workplace of the governor of Puerto Rico. Located in the historic quarter of Old San Juan in the capital municipality of San Juan, it has served as the governor’s residence since the 16th century, making it the oldest executive mansion in continuous use in the New World. Built as a medieval fortress from 1533 to 1540 by orders of King Charles I of Spain, and remodeled to its present Neoclassical style in 1846 by orders of Governor Rafael Arístegui y Vélez, it was the first fortification erected by the Spanish on San Juan Islet to defend San Juan Bay, the harbor of Old San Juan. Alongside El Morro, San Cristóbal, and other forts part of the Walls of Old San Juan, it protected strategically and militarily important Puerto Rico, or La Llave de las Indias (The Key to the Indies), from invasion by competing world powers and harassment by privateers and pirates during the Age of Discovery and Sail. It was designated a World Heritage Site in 1983.

Situated in the western end of San Juan Islet in the Old San Juan historic quarter, La Fortaleza, seat of the executive branch, is about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the Capitol of Puerto Rico, seat of the legislative branch, in the center of the Islet in the Puerta de Tierra historic district, and 2 miles (3.2 km) from the Supreme Court Building, seat of the judicial branch, in the eastern end of the Islet in Puerta de Tierra.

The Foraker Act (Pub. L. 56–191, 31 Stat. 77, enacted April 12, 1900), officially called the Organic Act of 1900 and most commonly known by the name of its sponsor, Senator Joseph B. Foraker, (R-Ohio), is an organic act of the 56th United States Congress that was signed into law by President William McKinley on April 12, 1900. The Act replaced the military government of Puerto Rico, which was established by the United States after the annexation of the archipelago and island during the Spanish–American War in 1898, with a civil insular government under the continued federal jurisdiction of the United States as the local administration of an unincorporated territory. It served as the primary organic law for the government of Puerto Rico and its relation with the United States until it was superseded by the Jones–Shafroth Act of 1917.

The Foraker Act established a civil government in Puerto Rico modeled after the federal government of the United States. It divided the local government of the unincorporated territory into three branches: an executive, consisting of a Governor and an 11-member Executive Council appointed by the President of the United States, a legislative, composed of bicameral Legislative Assembly, with the Executive Council as its upper chamber and a 35-member House of Delegates elected by the residents of Puerto Rico as its lower chamber, and a judicial, headed by a chief justice and a district judge appointed by the President. The Act created the office of Resident Commissioner, a non-voting member to the United States House of Representatives elected by the residents of Puerto Rico. It also established Puerto Rican citizenship and extended American nationality to Puerto Ricans.

The Capitol of Puerto Rico (Spanish: Capitolio de Puerto Rico), also known as Casa de las Leyes (House of Laws), and most commonly referred to as El Capitolio (The Capitol), is the seat of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, a bicameral legislature composed of a Senate and a House of Representatives responsible for the legislative branch of the government in the archipelago and island. Located in San Juan Islet immediately outside the city walls of the Old San Juan historic quarter in the capital municipality of San Juan, the ocean and bayfront, Neoclassical Beaux-Arts style, entirely white marble-cladded edifice was built by architect Rafael Carmoega between 1921 and 1929 to resemble the Pantheon in Rome, using as inspiration the Low Memorial Library in New York City. It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

Situated in the center of San Juan Islet in the Puerta de Tierra historic district overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in the north and San Juan Bay in the south from an elevated point, the Capitol of Puerto Rico is about 1 mile (1.6 km) from both the La Fortaleza, seat of the executive branch, in the Old San Juan historic quarter in the western end of the Islet, and the Supreme Court Building, seat of the judicial branch, in the eastern end of the Islet in Puerta de Tierra. The Court and Capitol are directly connected via Luis Muñoz Rivera Avenue in the north and Juan Ponce de León Avenue in the south, both of which are directly linked to La Fortaleza via San Francisco Street in the north and Fortaleza Street in the south.

The Supreme Court Building (Spanish: Edificio del Tribunal Supremo) is the seat of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, the highest court of the judicial branch in the U.S. territory, located within the grounds of the Luis Muñoz Rivera Park in the Puerta de Tierra historic district of San Juan, the capital municipality. Built by the Toro Ferrer firm in 1955, the Tropical Modern, International Style courthouse is a three-story, rectangular edifice projected over a perpendicular reflecting pool. Situated in the eastern end of San Juan Islet, it is about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the Capitol, seat of the legislative branch, in the center of the Islet near the entrance to the Old San Juan historic quarter, and 2 miles (3.2 km) from the La Fortaleza, seat of the executive branch, in the western end of the Islet in Old San Juan. It was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

The Supreme Court building is home to the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, the highest court in the archipelago and island, and is the successor to the Real Audiencia Territorial (Royal Territorial Court), a court of appeals with jurisdiction over Puerto Rico first founded by the Spanish Empire in 1832. Its construction marked the newly established commonwealth status of Puerto Rico, which was specified in the Constitution of Puerto Rico in 1952. The building was officially inaugurated in February 1956 with U.S. Supreme Court chief justice Earl Warren as the main speaker.